Charlie Rose

stickman  05/07/2009 10:47 PM Report

Charlie Rose begins this interview by repeating one of the most persistent and malicious pieces of misinformation about President Bush, when he states "In March President Obama lifted the ban on federal funding for stem cell research."

There has never been a general ban on federal funding for stem cell research. Here are the facts: On August 9, 2001 President Bush gave what Charles Krauthammer has called "...the most morally serious address on medical ethics ever given by an American president." In it he explained his executive order that would allow, for the first time, federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. At the same time, he restricted that funding to cells derived from embryos that had already been destroyed. He did not ban federal funding for adult stem cell resarch. He did not ban research being conducted by private laboratories. He did not ban research using existing lines of embryonic stem cells. What he did ban, was the use of taxpayer money to do research involving the deliberate destrcution of viable human embryos, or the creation of new embryos for the purpose of destroying them. In short, he made a very difficult and judicious decision that sought to find a balance between the promise of embryonic stem cell research and the moral objections of a majority of Americans. Whatver one may think of the line that he drew with that decision, it is dishonest to portray it, as so many on the left have done, as a blanket ban on stem cell research.

smucilli  05/07/2009 05:50 AM Report

My husband was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma late last summer. This is a cancer produced by his plasma cells. After sucessful chemo he chose to really kick the cancer with a stem cell transplant. His own stem cells were harvested from his blood then he was given extreme chemo to basically kill his immune system. The stem cells were transplanted back into his blood stream and within 13 days had regrafted and began producing healthy plasma cells. He is now showing no signs of myeloma cells. We pray that research will lead to this miracle for others!

REMant  05/06/2009 11:00 PM Report

I certainly would agree with the idea that this area deserves sustained exploration, and I feel that it is deserving of a lot more support than landing men on the moon again or flights to Mars. Maybe the DoD will decide that it might allow battlefield medics to miraculously restore lost limbs or whatever, like they do on Startrek, or however it is that they make decisions about the merits of R&D funding.